Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Sometimes your Willingness to Wait on God will Cause Others to Despise You

Note Here that Daniel was actively following God.

He was willing to follow God and move forward only when God told him to move.

and what happened is that

To obey God is to show our love for Him.

If obedience doesn’t cost us anything, it really doesn’t prove the depth of our love for God.

“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says.

There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice.

Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him.

But trying in a new way, a less worried way.

Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already.

Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

A lack of obedience reveals a lack of trusting God in our hearts.

Will you trust God, even when it’s not easy?

Even when you have something to lose?

It’s important to make that decision now, versus waiting until the moment comes.

There is a scene in the movie Courageous that depicts main carachter Javier in a tough situation when his new boss at his probationary job asks him to lie about some numbers in order to benefit the company.

Javier would eventually learn that his boss’ request was a test of his integrity, and he got the promotion after turning down the request to lie.

Javier had to decide which was more important: his boss’ favor and his new job, or obeying God.

Javier had to trust God with the consequences of doing what was right, and in the end, God blessed him for it.

God’s Favor in Previous Trials Should Encourage Future Obedience

God will build up our faith through experiences with Him.

By the time Daniel had to face the lion’s den, he had already experienced God’s favor and deliverance because of his obedience to God.

Back in chapter 1, Daniel and his friends refused to eat the rich foods of the king’s table because they were considered unclean according to the Hebrew Law.

Daniel courageously refused to eat based on his convictions (vss.

8-13), even though all the other young men with them ate

As a result, God exalted Daniel and his friends (vs.

15) and gave them great wisdom and favor with their captivator the king (vs.

17).

If we take the opportunities God gives us to obey when the consequences may seem trite, we will be building that courage and faith for when the obstacles are bigger and more is on the line.

Just like lifting weights starts with lighter weight and gradually builds, so can faith and courage build through continued “exercise.”.

God will build up our faith muscles if we respond in the opportunities He gives us with obedience.

Dumbbells

God Uses Our Obedience in Trials for His Glory

The movie Chariots of Fire tells the true story of Olympian Eric Liddell who disqualified himself from the 100m race because he felt it would dishonor God by running on the Sabbath.

When Liddell came to the 400m race in the 1924 Olympics, he won.

While many people wouldn’t object to running in the Olympics on a Sunday, Liddell’s choice is a great example of someone motivated by faith, rather than fame.

This, however, isn’t the end of his story.

He would eventually become a missionary in China.

The Guardian says this about that period in his life: “Once Japan entered the second world war Liddell and other westerners had their freedom of movement restricted, and in 1943 he and a couple of thousand others were interned at a camp in Weihsien.

There he established a school and took charge of the children’s recreation, organising sporting activities and creating or mending equipment.

He was even said to have broken a habit of a lifetime by engaging in sporting activity on Sundays, refereeing childrens’ football matches.

On one occasion Liddell was given a chance to leave the camp through an exchange arrangement made by Winston Churchill, but he instead arranged for a pregnant woman to take his place.

“Early in 1945, six months before the camp’s liberation, Liddell became ill.

In a letter he told his wife that he feared he was having a nervous breakdown.

In fact it was a brain tumour, untreatable in those circumstances, and on 21 February he died.”

Liddell’s life is a great example of someone following God’s call even when it’s not easy.

His story is still remembered to this day.

In that same sense, Daniel’s obedience and trust in the Lord ultimately led a nation to worship the one true God.

If we obey God even when we are ostracized for it, He will receive glory from our lives.

He will use our obedience to stir up questions of faith in those who are around us, even bringing some of them to know Him because of it.